BENTONVILLE -- Joshua Bohling is one of many people fighting traffic on Arkansas 102 each morning to get to work. It typically takes him 45 minutes to drive the 7 miles from his Centerton home to the David Glass Technology Center in Bentonville, he said.
Bohling and two of his co-workers showed up Tuesday for a public-input session on ways the Arkansas 102 and U.S. 62 corridor -- a 10-mile stretch through Centerton, Bentonville and Rogers -- could be improved.
Study goals
The areas targeted for study in the Arkansas Department of Transportation’s Arkansas 102/U.S. 62 corridor:
• Mobility and recurring congestion
• Reliability and non-recurring congestion
• Safety
• Nonmotorized considerations
• Freight accessibility
• Access management
• Infrastructure condition
• Environmental sustainability
Source: Arkansas Department of Transportation
"I think it's great that someone's taking a look at it," Bohling said. "Pretty much everyone I know who drives 102 every day says, 'I can't stand this road; what is wrong with this road; why can't we do better than this?'"
The Arkansas Department of Transportation hosted the open-house event at Northwest Arkansas Community College as it prepares a study assessing safety and congestion along the corridor.
The department set up posters providing statistics related to the highway's traffic. Department representatives also engaged visitors in conversations about what can be done to improve the corridor.
"We've got data on traffic volume, turning movements, accidents, the number of cars, things like that," said Danny Straessle, public information officer for the department. "What we don't have is individual driver experience. And so we are appealing to the public asking them for their input."
The input will be incorporated into a report examining the issues and suggesting solutions, along with the associated costs. The report will be completed in early 2019, said Kip Strauss, project manager with HNTB Corp., a firm consulting the Department of Transportation on the study.
No money is allocated for improvement, but the report will provide a blueprint of what to do when money becomes available, Strauss said.
There were 2,629 crashes along the corridor from 2012 through 2016, an average of almost 1.5 per day. Strauss called that figure "a little alarming." Five of those crashes were fatal. Half of them involved a driver rear-ending another, according to the department's data.
Rear-end crashes indicate drivers are going at high speeds and realizing too late they're approaching congestion, Strauss said.
Bob Harmon lives on Arkansas 102 in Bentonville, where it's called Southwest 14th Street, just west of the Benton County Jail. Traffic backs up each morning in front of his house because of the stoplight at the Southwest I Street intersection, he said.
"I don't try to get out and go any place then," Harmon said.
He's lived in his house for 19 years but wants to move because of the traffic. He's had his property up for sale for "quite a while," he said.
"The city needs another east-west thoroughfare through there, but I don't know where they'd put it," Harmon said. "There are too many things in the way."
Bohling and his co-workers shared their thoughts with Daniel Byram, project manager for the department, while poring over a map of the corridor.
"I think one of the main problems is just that you have times where this segment between [Southwest A Street] and Walton is completely empty, because the lights aren't working together, it seems like," Bohling said, referring to a stretch of about a block on Southwest 14th Street. "So you have people queued up clear back almost to [Southeast J Street]."
Bohling said he'd like to eliminate the Southwest A Street light. He also wishes for right-turn lanes at access points to neighborhoods, he said.
Peak traffic hours along the corridor are 7-8 a.m. and 5-6 p.m. Between 25,000 and 37,000 vehicles travel the corridor at various points throughout each day, according to department data.
When weighing any change to the roads, officials must take into account how it will affect adjacent roads and highways, Straessle said.
"The whole highway system works together as a grid, if you will. And when you make changes in one area, it impacts another," he said.
The department will continue to accept input on the corridor for the next two weeks. People may download a comment form at ardot.gov, Straessle said.
"We read all the comments," he said.
The department plans to hold another public session from 4-7 p.m. today for a U.S. 412 study in Springdale and Tontitown. That meeting will be held at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, 1311 Clayton St. in Springdale.
NW News on 03/28/2018